


Invisible Lives

by GoddessofRoyalty



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: (sometimes), Alternate Universe, M/M, Mpreg, Zack Fair Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:09:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24587389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoddessofRoyalty/pseuds/GoddessofRoyalty
Summary: Canon Cloud, Sephiroth, and the members of AVALANCHE meet happy couple Sefikura (and sometimes their kids). Or at least the echoes of what might have been.
Relationships: Sephiroth/Cloud Strife
Comments: 39
Kudos: 194





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Did I write a Star Wars fic by the same name? Yes. Do I care? No. It works too well for this one as well. 
> 
> Anything named after Invisible Cities ends up artsy and this is no different - take weird time-combinations and characters turning corners to see into different universes.

Aerith is surprised that Tifa had apparently left the church while Aerith went into the back room to grab something.

She’s more surprised though at the obvious change of Cloud’s weight while she was there.

“Cloud – you’re pregnant.” And obviously so. Which really didn’t make sense seeing Aerith was fairly certain he wasn’t moments ago.

“Really? I hadn’t noticed,” Cloud says. His voice dry.

“No, I mean…” There’s something off about it. Something wrong about Cloud’s pregnancy and not just because of its sudden appearance. It doesn’t feel like any other pregnancy Aerith’s been near. “I mean- who’s the father?”

“If you’re trying to be funny it isn’t working,” Cloud says.

“Nope. It’s an honest question. Promise.” Maybe if she can know that than she can figure out why she can’t shake the feeling of danger at it.

Instead of answering Cloud gives her an odd look.

“Aerith – are you okay?”

“Of course.” The more she thought about it it wasn’t just Cloud or his pregnancy that felt off but everything. The planet itself feeling different.

“Everything okay in there?”

Aerith recognises the voice before Zack even enters the church. And it’s a voice she’s missed as much as she’s missed the sight of him.

The fact he’s alive just makes her confusion worse.

“Sure Zack,” Cloud says. “Aerith just seems a bit off is all.”

“Huh?” Zack asks before looking over at Aerith. Turning his head in the useless adorable expression he always had when he was considering something.

“She seems fine to me,” Zack says before leaning back towards the door of the church. “Hey, Seph – get in here a second. We need your opinion on something.”

Despite how much Aerith wishes otherwise it is Sephiroth who walks through the door.

And the wrong feeling that seems to especially focus around Cloud’s pregnancy is the same as the one Sephiroth gives off.

Aerith has a feeling she knows who the father is now.

Cloud doesn’t look any way distressed that Sephiroth is there though. And surely Zack wouldn’t have just let anything too bad happen and still remain friends with Sephiroth.

Maybe whatever difference that helped to allow Zack to live also allowed Sephiroth to not succumb to the evil-wrong within him.

“What do you want my opinion on?” Sephiroth asks. And he’s watching Aerith closely – she wonders if he can tell she’s the one that doesn’t belong.

“Does Aerith seem off to you?” Zack asks.

Sephiroth could cause a lot of problems for Aerith if he revealed she isn’t the Aerith of this world or time. And he clearly knows it just as how she’s always known where the wrong him was in her world and time.

“No. She seems perfectly normal to me,” Sephiroth says. Only finally moving his gaze from Aerith onto Zack and Cloud.

He must have decided she wasn’t a threat to him.

Or maybe wasn’t a threat to them Aerith realises.

And it’s odd to think of Sephiroth at all being concerned with Cloud’s well-being.

But it’s a nice odd Aerith decides.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No mpreg in this one. 
> 
> Also no Zack.

Tifa doesn’t know where Cloud got the change of clothes from. Or why he is waiting at the train station as if he’s just come to visit the sector. But after what happened at the reactor Tifa doesn’t care.

She’s just glad to know Cloud is okay.

There’s no need to attract attention to them though. So Tifa casually makes her way through the crowd towards him.

Another beats her to Cloud and it makes Tifa’s blood go cold.

Sephiroth.

Which should be impossible. Sephiroth is dead. The world mourned their General never knowing the evil he was capable of.

But he’s just standing next to Cloud and Cloud is looking up at him-

And fuck avoiding drawing attention to them.

“Cloud!” Tifa forces her way through the crowd to them. She doesn’t know if she could actually stand a chance against Sephiroth but she’s gotten a lot stronger now and she has to at least try to back up Cloud.

“Tifa!?” Cloud says, looking genuinely confused. “I didn’t know you moved to Midgar.”

“What?” That wasn’t possible – how could Cloud not know she was in Midgar? He’d been all-but by her side for all of the last few days.

“Oh! Seph- this is Tifa. We grew up together,” Cloud says, looking back at Sephiroth. Tifa keeps looking for an indication it is some kind of act but there just doesn’t seem to be any.

“And Tifa this is my boyfriend Sephiroth.”

“Boyfriend!?” There’s no hiding her disbelief at it.

“Yes. I remember what I promised, but I was kind of a kid then.”

“It’s not that.” It’s the fact that Sephiroth burned their home down. Killed their parents. Damn well tried to kill them as well. “I just didn’t think you would be into someone like that.”

“Like what?” Cloud asks. And there’s the defensive tone of his Tifa knew. She wondered how many other people questioned their relationship.

“So-” Genocidal. A custom-built murderer for Shinra Company. “-much in the public view.”

There’s clearly something else going on with what is happening. Better Tifa not start throwing accusations around before she figures out what it is.

“If I could I would not be in the public view either,” Sephiroth says, deciding to finally join in on the conversation.

And it’s so strange to Tifa to hear him talk like a normal person and not like a corrupted-god looking down on all of humanity.

“Oh.” It feels odd to be caught up in what really is a normal conversation with the man who ruined her life.

Tifa doesn’t really know how to take part. Funny considering how easy she normally can hold a conversation with even the oddest patrons at the bar. And how much Cloud normally is the one struggling with talking.

“What about you?” Cloud asks. “Why are you in Midgar?”

Because Sephiroth burned her home down and killed everyone she knew.

But that probably hasn’t happened here. Niflheim probably is still standing. And Cloud is dating Sephiroth. And Tifa tries not to think about how those two facts might be connected.

“Just felt like I had outgrown it. And I couldn’t keep on waiting for you to come back.” The jokes are safe. And based on what she had been starting to feel back before Cloud did come home and her whole world lit into flames. “Might start up a bar.”

“If you do make sure to tell us and I will be sure to visit,” Sephiroth says.

Tifa can’t help but feel her defences rise at it. Does Sephiroth plan on taking that from her too?

“Use my place in the public view for some good,” Sephritoh finishes. And, oh, he’s offering to help her just because she’s someone Cloud knows.

Which is actually really sweet.

Still.

She needs to be sure.

“He takes good care of you right Cloud?”

“I can look after myself,” Cloud says immediately. And again there’s the Cloud Tifa remembers. It must be another sore spot of his – an assumption he’s over being made.

“It’s not that I doubt that. It’s just we have to look out for each other in a city this big.” There’s only the two of them. Even if the others aren’t dead like they are in Tifa’s memory – home is far enough away they might as well be.

“Oh,” Cloud says a blush creeping up on his neck. “Then – uh – yes.”

“Good. Don’t let me hear otherwise.”

Sephiroth’s eyebrow rises at it. But he seems amused. Likely not believing Tifa capable of harming him.

But Tifa has nursed Cloud back to health from the state the man had left him in once. If she had to do it again she would personally ensure Sephiroth paid for it.


	3. Barret

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can’t remember if I made it clear before or not but if I didn’t - each of the universes the characters are visiting are different universes that are based on the plot veering off at a different point of the canon. Most of which I know the different point in canon that they veered off on.

Barret always hated when kids freaked out at the sight of him.

He got it. He was a big guy with a gun in the place of one of his arms. It wasn’t exactly the most comforting appearance.

But Shinra was a bigger threat to kids than he ever would be. There’s just no damn way for him to even get the chance to explain that to them when they’re too busy screaming and running to their parents.

“Hey, Hope, what’s up?”

And damned if Barret doesn’t recognise that parent’s voice.

“Cloud?” Why the hell had nobody told me their resident ex-SOLDIER has a kid? Tifa had clearly been holding out on him despite the fact it wasn’t like Barret would like the kid less if he knew he had a kid of his own.

“Do I know you?” Cloud asks. The kid balanced on his hip so they can hide their face against Cloud’s neck. And seeing the boy’s face next to Cloud makes Barret notice all the shared features.

Cloud not even having adopted a kid. He’s full-on _made_ one.

“What you talking about? Of course I know you!”

Did Cloud not want his kid anywhere near the terrorism he is involved in? Barret gets the urge – he doesn’t want Marlene exposed to the ugly of the world. But he also knows how impossible it is to separate the personal from the political. No way Cloud’s gonna’ hide it from his kid forever.

“I don’t know you,” Cloud says. And there’s a shift in his stance to something more defensive. Knowing him he’s braced to put his kid down and attack.

Not that Barret has any damned idea why.

So what he’s found out about Cloud’s kid? It doesn’t change nothing.

“Dad!” Cloud’s kid says. And going by how Cloud glances behind himself the kid isn’t talking about Cloud.

And because the situation couldn’t get any fucking weirder fucking General Sephiroth walks over, apparently returned from the dead.

“Seph,” CLoud says. Looking fucking _relieved_ for him to be there.

“The fuck?” Last time Barret had checked Cloud hated everything to do with Shinra. Including their, by all accounts _dead_ , General.

And just to add to the oddness of the situation Shinra’s fucking pet General leans down to eye level of the kid and gently runs his hand through their hair as if to reassure them. And the kid leans against Sephiroth’s hand like it makes them feel safe.

And Barret feels it’s pretty damn unfair that the kid treats him like some damn scary monster when they look so damn happy at fucking silver-hair-demon Spehiroth.

“What’s happening?” Sephiroth asks, drawing himself to full height like he’s trying to be extra intimidating.

“He says he knows me,” Cloud says.

Barret decides that you know what? Fuck this whole situation.

“Just a case of mistaken identity is all,” Barret says. Because it’s clear he’s stumbled on some weird-ass backwards universe.

Hell, maybe Shinra’s destruction of the planet has finally caused shit to really fall apart and things to become all opposite day.

Would serve them all right for allowing this shit to continue unchecked.

“He knew my name,” Cloud says. Because apparently in this universe he’s a loyal-dog of Shinra through and through.

“Common name.” It isn’t but hopefully they buy it so he can leave and go find out whether Avalanche has survived the universal topsy-tervey.

“Really? You just happen to know another Cloud that looks just like him?” Sephiroth asks, his eyes narrowed in clear doubt.

“Sure, the one I know’d never be in a relationship with you though.”

Sephiroth gives a small chuckle at it. And Barret wants to smash the _fond amusement_ off his stupid face.

At least Cloud doesn’t look that entertained by it either.

“Let’s just go,” Cloud says, “get Hope home.”

“If you insist,” Sephiroth says. The affection in his voice making Barret feel like he’s going to break out in damn hives.

He’s more than grateful when they leave. Didn’t know how much longer he could stand such an unnatural sight.

Honestly he mostly feels sorry for the kid – Hope. The little dude didn’t deserve having Sephiroth as a father.


	4. Sephiroth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one ended up a bit longer but this one also is more a complete stand-alone and less a... premise for a longer fic.

Sephiroth doesn’t know exactly what calls him back to his apartment in Shinra.

It’s off the path of his goals and risks his presence being discovered and possibly even his plan prevented.

The call is strong though and his curiosity raised too much at it for him to just ignore the temptation to have a look.

His apartment is different to how he left it.

Which makes sense. He was assumed dead for some years. It would have been given to someone else. No point in wasting it considering the public wouldn’t be given clearance for this far into the Tower to use it as a shrine to him.

But it also still looks like he lives in it.

There are things he recognises as his still there. Too many of them for him to assume they were merely given to whoever got the apartment after him.

He should just leave and return to his actual goal.

Finding out who owns the room now though feels much more pressing despite it being the first time he’s considered the question. Seems more pressing than the plans he has been making for years.

Considering how dark it is he figures whoever it is will likely be in bed.

If they’re not than their bedroom is still the most likely to reveal who they are. Most keep the biggest evidence of themselves in there.

The owner of the apartment is still in bed with a partner curled in their arms.

Sephiroth is in his bed with Cloud Strife in his arms.

It’s probably ironic that Sephiroth finds the second person more surprising than the first.

He’s used to looking at identical copies of himself now. Fascinating how his mother can turn those injected with her cells into so close of a replica of him.

Cloud though?

He would never look so at peace in Sephiroth’s arms. Real or copy.

They both sleep so soundly Sephiroth can walk over to the bed without them waking. Can stand over Cloud’s unconscious form without being noticed.

He could do anything to Cloud right now. Could completely remove him as a complication to Sephiroth’s plans.

Where is the sport in that though?

He reaches down to touch Cloud just to prove he can but freezes when he hears a baby’s cry. Too close to not be within the apartment.

“Mmhmm, Seph, I got up to them last time – you do it this time,” Cloud says, nuzzling against the pillow clearly not wanting to have to get up.

Sephiroth wonders what would happen if he waited until Cloud woke and discovered there were now two of him in the room.

Doing so would likely end in him not finding out the source of the crying. And Sephiroth finds himself too curious about it to want to give it up even for an opportunity to torment Cloud.

“Alright,” Sephiroth says, watching for any reaction that might indicate his voice is not as expected. “You go back to sleep.”

Neither Cloud nor the Sephiroth double stir at it. So Sephiroth presumes there is nothing out of the ordinary about it to them.

It’s easy to track the cries through the apartment. Shrill and demanding in a way only a baby’s are able to.

Sephiroth never had much use for his spare bedroom. All the people who he might have sleep over lived close enough that there was little point in them doing so.

Still it is odd to see it converted to contain a crib.

Sephiroth doesn’t hesitate to walk over to it.

He isn’t surprised to find a baby in it – cribs are designed for them. But he is a little surprised that there are two others in there as well as the one crying.

All three have his silver hair and Sephiroth finds himself lost to action.

He could kill them to devastate this Cloud. He could take them to use them as his weapons against Cloud. He could leave them to see what the other him has planned.

“Do you want to know their names?”

It’s the other him at the door. And Sephiroth listens to see if he can hear any indication Cloud has awoken as well. But there doesn’t seem to be any.

“I didn’t think you would wake.”

“Would you sleep through another moving around your home?” the other him asks and Sephiroth supposes he is right.

“What do you plan on doing with them?” There are so many uses Sephiroth can think of for the infants.

“Raise them,” the other Sephiroth says.

“What for?”

“Whatever they want – I am their father not their master.”

A waste honestly. There is so much potential the children present to achieve Sephiroth’s goals.

“You are not of this timeline.” It’s not a question from the other him but a statement.

“It appears not.” Too many things are too different. Sephiroth would be a fool not to realise that he clearly no longer is in the world he is used to.

“Then things turned out differently in yours.” Another statement.

“Evidently.”

“Are you happy in your time?”

“Yes.” Or Sephiroth will be. Once he has achieved his goals and removed humanity from existence. “What about you?”

“Immensely. For now I must tend to my son before my spouse wakes.”

Of course. Cloud is still asleep. And it would be inconvenient if he woke and walked into the room with his spouse and an identical doppelganger.

Sephiroth realises that in this world he is the imposter. A copy of the Sephiroth currently rocking a silver-haired infant.

It is an odd realisation to feel.


	5. Cloud

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I’m marking this as complete because this is the last chapter for now. I’m just also pretty sure when the next part of the game comes out I’ll do another couple. I know what Square & Nomura are like though and there’s no point leaving this marked as in-complete when I could be in a completely different place in my life when the next game drops.
> 
> So for the time being – thank you for sticking with this the whole way through. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. You can follow my tumblr (GoddessofRoyalty) or my twitter (GoddessofRoyal) if you want updates of other fics I’m working on.

Cloud realises that something is different as soon as the leaves the underground carpark.

It would be hard not to considering the time of day has drastically changed. Sunlight streaming through the windows of Shinra tower and a bustling crowd moving through the entry of – all too well dressed to merely be going to work.

Cloud turns around to find Tifa and Barret no longer there. They must have been left behind when Cloud got transported wherever, or whenever, he is now.

Hopefully they’re not freaking out too much from his sudden disappearance.

Trying to push through the crowd Cloud wishes he was still with them. He would much rather be about to face off against the entirety of Shinra’s might than deal with this many people so close to him.

Cloud thinks he sees Tifa in the crowd, wearing a much nicer dress than the one she wore for the Don, so Cloud starts to head towards her.

“Hey- Cloud!” a voice calls through the crowd. A voice Cloud recognises from his memories even if he can’t place from where.

He turns to see a SOLDIER jogging over to him. The crowd now watching them from the corner of their eyes.

Cloud feels his heart contract when looking at the SOLIDER. The feeling of sadness washing over him despite not knowing why.

“What are you doing out here?” the SOLDIER asks. “Shouldn’t you be getting ready right now?”

“Getting ready for what?” Cloud asks.

“Uh – you’re wedding,” the SOLDIER says. And- Zack. Cloud thinks his name is Zack. He still doesn’t understand why he feels like crying just looking at him. “Don’t tell me you forgot.”

“Uh, I’m sorry?” It’s probably better to play along. Maybe he can figure out why his head and heart hurt if he does.

“Not getting cold feet are you?” Zack asks.

“No just – the crowd.” Hopefully the response fits with what Zack expects of Cloud.

“Huh?” Zack says, looking around. “Yeah I guess there are a lot of people here. Seph did try and have it be a private ceremony, but I guess Shinra wanted the publicity too much.”

“Seph – you mean Sephiroth?” Sephiroth was here. Cloud feels his heart pick up at that. Ready to fight wherever the General comes from.

“Yeah, are you sure you’re feeling okay Cloud? You seem kind of out of sorts.” There’s genuine concern on Zack’s face and for some reason Cloud wants to reassure it away. Wants to see the SOLDIER smile again.

“I’m fine. Just nerves.”

“If you’re sure,” Zack says, glancing behind to the time displayed on the screens in the Shinra entry. “We should probably go finish getting you ready.”

“Right.” What other choice does Cloud have but to go with it? He just hopes he returns to Tifa and Barret before it becomes time for his wedding night.

Zack practically drags Cloud to the elevator. Punching in a floor that Cloud thinks he remembers being the First’s private quarters. And once they arrive Zack drags him into one of the apartments.

Cloud looks up at the white tux hanging on the rack in the main part of the room and all he can think is that he’s grateful it’s at least not a dress.

With Zack clearly not leaving Cloud wasn’t going to be climbing out the bedroom window to escape either.

Right. Hopefully whatever version of himself belonged to this world wrote his vows down because it looked like Cloud wasn’t making it back to Tifa and Barret until after he stood at the altar.

The door opens and Cloud hears Zack gasp.

He turns to see Sephiroth standing there. And the fight or flight comes in strong.

“What are you doing here?” Zack demands as Cloud backs himself up looking for a weapon. “Don’t you know its bad luck for the two of you to see each other before the main event?”

Sephiroth just stares past Zack and Cloud can’t help but feel like a rabbit in the gaze of a wolf.

“I merely wanted to check that everything was okay in here,” Sephiroth says not breaking his gaze from Cloud. “May we have some privacy for a moment?”

Zack glances back to Cloud who just shakes his head. He doesn’t want to be left alone with Sephiroth.

Apparently Zack doesn’t pick up on that message.

“Alright, but no spoiling the fun of your wedding night by having desert early.”

“I promise that is not my intent,” Sephiroth says.

It’s apparently enough for Zack who just grins and leaves the room.

“You are not my Cloud,” Sephiroth says when the door clicks shut.

“Huh?” Cloud fears that fact is likely only going to put him at greater risk from his apparent husband-to-be.

“You are a different Cloud,” Sephiroth says again. “Not of this world.”

“How do you know?”

Sephiroth gives a dry smile.

“My Cloud wouldn’t be reaching for the cake-knife with his back against the wall.”

Cloud drops the aforementioned knife. He should have known Sephiroth wouldn’t have missed it.

“I suppose the me you are accustomed to is a monster intent on destroying the world?” Sephiroth asks. He’s staying where he is standing, not moving any closer – giving Cloud his space.

“And if he is?” Cloud says before wincing. _Way to sound like a cornered animal._

The smile Sephiroth gives in response is bitter.

“May I show you something?”

“Sure.” It’s not like Cloud can say no. He’s in this Sephiroth’s universe. And it appears everyone here trusts Sephiroth.

Sephiroth picks up a framed picture from the entry table and holds it out for Cloud to take. He doesn’t seem to care that Cloud only leaves the corner he’s backed himself into to grab the offered photo before returning to having at least his back guarded.

“Zack took it,” Sephiroth says with a nod to the photo.

When Cloud looks at the photo he realises that it’s of him and Sephiroth sitting on the couch of the apartment they are currently in. Cloud’s legs resting over Sephiroth’s lap, Sephiroth’s hand lightly resting on top. Neither of them are looking at the camera – Sephiroth focusing on a report while Cloud texts someone.

They both look content in a way Cloud hasn’t felt in almost as long as he can remember.

“I’ll have the wedding postponed until you return to your universe and my Cloud returns here,” Sephiroth says and somehow he doesn’t seem possessive even while calling the Cloud of this universe his.

“You don’t have to.” Cloud is sure Shinra will be less than pleased that the wedding they clearly planned has been delayed.

“Its fine,” Sephiroth says with a small smile. “It might cause some of the crowd to get bored and leave.”

“Right.” Cloud says. Still not sure if he can or should trust this Sephiroth.

“Perhaps I will see you again,” Sephiroth says with a nod. And, when it’s clear Cloud doesn’t know how to respond he leaves.

Leaves Cloud in an apartment that when he looks around he realises is clearly lived in by both himself and Sephiroth.

And Cloud would never want to marry his Sephiroth. Not after everything he destroyed in Cloud’s life.

But he also can’t help but find himself thinking about how lucky the Cloud that belongs to this life is.

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr is GoddessofRoyalty and twitter is GoddessofRoyal if you want to send me a prompt (this fic is based on one such prompt) or just chat to me.


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